JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Arguably the best International team had a 2-up lead with eight holes to play. Jason Day and Marc Leishman had not lost a hole through 10 holes and seemed to be in command of their match against Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner.
Given the plight of their team, it was crucial that Day and Leishman prevailed. Instead, they lost. Neither was able to make a birdie in the better-ball format the rest of the round when just one might have done the job.
Instead, they watched as Kisner's birdie at the 11th brought the Americans to just 1 down. Another Kisner birdie at the 16th brought them even. And then Mickelson's birdie on the 18th -- where Leishman missed from a closer distance -- meant a 1-up American victory.
"We had it going there for a while,'' Leishman said. "We were a couple up through 10. Yeah, I don't know, it is disappointing to miss that putt on the last. But you know, they played really well. Hold our head up high and give it another crack tomorrow.''
-- ESPN.com senior golf writer Bob Harig
Golf's rules can get complicated, even more so in a format that professionals don't play often.
Such was the case in Friday's four-ball matches at the Presidents Cup where International team member Anirban Lahiri played a practice shot from a greenside bunker on the second hole.
After leaving his shot on the lip of the trap, Lahiri raked the ball back to himself and hit a practice shot.
In match play, that is a breach of Rule 7-2 because it was not (A) the putting green of the hole last played, (B) any practice putting green, or (C) the teeing ground of the next hole to be played in the round, provided a practice stroke is not made from a hazard and does not unduly delay play.
The penalty, in this case for a match-play situation of four-balls, meant Lahiri was out of the next hole. Fortunately for the Indian it didn't matter as his teammate, Charl Schwartzel, matched pars with American Kevin Chappell.
International team captain Nick Price didn't see what happened, but was told about it later.
"I think it was just an oversight on his part," Price said. "... He's obviously trying to prove to all of us that his [captain's] pick was worth it, and it's put a lot of pressure on him. I think today he showed that; he was very tight out there. Just trying to get him to loosen up and play golf and not be so worried about the fact that he's got to prove something to us. You know, he doesn't have to do that. We chose him. The captains and I and a lot of the team members chose him.
"But it's hard. It's hard. He really wants to do well, and you can see it in his attitude and the strain in his face. He's having a tough time at the moment. But we'll be better over the next two days, I can assure you."
-- ESPN.com senior golf editor Kevin Maguire
The juggernaut that was the Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace pairing came to a screeching halt Friday at Liberty National. The pair of South Africans had never lost a team match together -- until they faced the American buzzsaw of Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler.
"We ran into a brick wall today with [Fowler and Thomas]," Grace said. "Every time we tried to show them something, they threw something better back at us. It's the way it goes. We still played good. I thought the back [nine], there was a lot of positive signs, and hopefully we can carry that into the next couple days."
Through two sessions, Oosthuizen and Grace are the only players to have won a full point for the International team. Granted, they've only won two as a team through 10 total matches.
-- ESPN.com senior golf editor Kevin Maguire
Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell had to sit Thursday and watch their American teammates at the Presidents Cup run up a big lead on the International squad. On Friday, they got in on the action.
From the outset, Hoffman and Chappell won their first two holes, led 5 up through nine and dropped only a single hole during a 6 and 5 four-balls victory Friday at Liberty National.
And they aren't shy about how they feel about their game.
"Our team is as good as you're ever going to get put together or not," Hoffman said. "We have total confidence. If I'm out of the hole, he's going to get it done with a birdie or a par; and if he's out of the hole, I'm going to get it done. But good thing that I was really only out of one hole and he was never really out of the hole. It was a lot of fun out there. Most importantly, we had fun. There are smiles on our face the whole time, and we have to do that even if we get down. We're going to embrace this today and we're going to have to go out and play hard tomorrow.
Even with their trouncing, they will have to wait until Saturday afternoon's four-ball session to get back out on the course.
-- ESPN.com senior golf editor Kevin Maguire